The majority of secure messengers have single, centralized service providers that relay ciphertexts between users to enable asynchronous communication. However, in some scenarios such as mass protests in censored networks, relying on a centralized provider is fatal. Mesh messengers attempt to solve this problem by building ad hoc networks in which user clients perform the ciphertext-relaying task. Yet, recent analyses of widely deployed mesh messengers discover severe security weaknesses (Albrecht et al. CT-RSA'21 & USENIX Security'22).

We show improved fine-grained hardness of two key lattice problems in the 𝓁_p norm: Bounded Distance Decoding to within an α factor of the minimum distance (BDD_{p, α}) and the (decisional) γ-approximate Shortest Vector Problem (GapSVP_{p,γ}), assuming variants of the Gap (Strong) Exponential Time Hypothesis (Gap-(S)ETH). Specifically, we show: 1) For all p ∈ [1, ∞), there is no 2^{o(n)}-time algorithm for BDD_{p, α} for any constant α > α_kn, where α_kn = 2^{-c_kn} < 0.98491 and c_kn is the 𝓁₂ kissing-number constant, unless non-uniform Gap-ETH is false. 2) For all p ∈ [1, ∞), there is no 2^{o(n)}-time algorithm for BDD_{p, α} for any constant α > α^‡_p, where α^‡_p is explicit and satisfies α^‡_p = 1 for 1 ≤ p ≤ 2, α^‡_p < 1 for all p > 2, and α^‡_p → 1/2 as p → ∞, unless randomized Gap-ETH is false. 3) For all p ∈ [1, ∞) ⧵ 2 ℤ and all C > 1, there is no 2^{n/C}-time algorithm for BDD_{p, α} for any constant α > α^†_{p, C}, where α^†_{p, C} is explicit and satisfies α^†_{p, C} → 1 as C → ∞ for any fixed p ∈ [1, ∞), unless non-uniform Gap-SETH is false. 4) For all p > p₀ ≈ 2.1397, p ∉ 2ℤ, and all C > C_p, there is no 2^{n/C}-time algorithm for GapSVP_{p, γ} for some constant γ > 1, where C_p > 1 is explicit and satisfies C_p → 1 as p → ∞, unless randomized Gap-SETH is false. Our results for BDD_{p, α} improve and extend work by Aggarwal and Stephens-Davidowitz (STOC, 2018) and Bennett and Peikert (CCC, 2020). Specifically, the quantities α_kn and α^‡_p (respectively, α^†_{p,C}) significantly improve upon the corresponding quantity α_p^* (respectively, α_{p,C}^*) of Bennett and Peikert for small p (but arise from somewhat stronger assumptions). In particular, Item 1 improves the smallest value of α for which BDD_{p, α} is known to be exponentially hard in the Euclidean norm (p = 2) to an explicit constant α < 1 for the first time under a general-purpose complexity assumption. Items 1 and 3 crucially use the recent breakthrough result of Vlăduţ (Moscow Journal of Combinatorics and Number Theory, 2019), which showed an explicit exponential lower bound on the lattice kissing number. Finally, Item 4 answers a natural question left open by Aggarwal, Bennett, Golovnev, and Stephens-Davidowitz (SODA, 2021), which showed an analogous result for the Closest Vector Problem.

We introduce a continuous analogue of the Learning with Errors (LWE) problem, which we name CLWE. We give a polynomial-time quantum reduction from worst-case lattice problems to CLWE, showing that CLWE enjoys similar hardness guarantees to those of LWE. Alternatively, our result can also be seen as opening new avenues of (quantum) attacks on lattice problems. Our work resolves an open problem regarding the computational complexity of learning mixtures of Gaussians without separability assumptions (Diakonikolas 2016, Moitra 2018). As an additional motivation, (a slight variant of) CLWE was considered in the context of robust machine learning (Diakonikolas et al.~FOCS 2017), where hardness in the statistical query (SQ) model was shown; our work addresses the open question regarding its computational hardness (Bubeck et al.~ICML 2019).

We show that for any n-dimensional lattice ℒ ⊆ ℝⁿ, the torus ℝⁿ/ℒ can be embedded into Hilbert space with O(√{nlog n}) distortion. This improves the previously best known upper bound of O(n√{log n}) shown by Haviv and Regev (APPROX 2010, J. Topol. Anal. 2013) and approaches the lower bound of Ω(√n) due to Khot and Naor (FOCS 2005, Math. Ann. 2006).